pain centers?

In article <falvarez.6.2F671A86 at desire.wright.edu>, falvarez at desire.wright.edu w
rites:
>In article <3k4hcp$fsm at news.ycc.yale.edu> jnilsen at minerva.cis.yale.edu (jnilsen
) writes:
>>From: jnilsen at minerva.cis.yale.edu (jnilsen)
>>Subject: Re: pain centers?
>>Date: 14 Mar 1995 16:48:25 GMT
>>>Franklin Boyle (fb0m+ at andrew.cmu.edu) wrote:
>>: Is there a particular location in the brain considered to
>>: be a "pain center", or is the interpretation of signals
>>: that originate from injury distributed? Also, is there
>>: some pathway for such signals different from that traveled by more normal
>>: sensory signals, and, whether or not it is separate, could
>>: damage to such a pathway cause normal signals to be
>>: interpreted as pain through some sort of modulation or
>>: distortion?
>>>: Any replies would be greatly appreciated as would pointers to
>>: the literature.
>>>: Thanks,
>>: Frank Boyle
>>There are many brain nuclei and pathways involved with pain transmission and
>processing. The Spinothalamic tract in the anterolateral quadrant of the
>spinal cord is the textbook example of a "pain pathway" and links certain
>neurons in the spinal cord with certain nuclei in the thalamus. If destroyed
>relieves pain but eventually pain comes back through alternative pathways that
>take on the roles of the STT channel. There are several alternatives and not
>all are well known. Different pathways mediate the reflexes, the emotions,
>the exact body localization and the modulation of the input that we all
>experience an injury. All are very active areas of current research. Therefore
>at every level of the spinal cord, brainstem and forebrain there are centers
>more or less specialized in the processing of nociceptive information (this is
>the word you should use for the sensory processing part, it becomes pain when
>we "feel" it= make it conscious with displeasure attach to it, notice that
>there can be nociception with no or little pain or pain with no nociception,
>so they are not exactly the same and the distinction is important). For a
>first reading look into any Neurobiology or Neuroscience textbook. For further
>reading:
>>Pain Textbook. ed by Wall and Melzack 1994 Churchill Livingston.
>Chapter 6 by Guilbaud, Bernard and Besson
>Brain Areas involved in nociception and pain. pp 113-128.
>>Francisco J. Alvarez
>Wright State University
>I think it is also important to recognize that pain can be lack of a signal
that use to me there. Phantom limb pain is a good example.
Ron Blue